I think we can all agree that business is necessary.   Not only from a make-a-living standpoint, but to generate the various things we need — or want — to survive.   But where that business falls in terms of its motivations, goals, and means is on a wide spectrum between two points:   Pure Philanthropy and Pure Greed — you do it for the betterment of the world, or you do it for the money, or as more often happens — a combination of the two.

This, then, has been the key point that I have been thinking about:   What combination of the two makes me happiest and most fulfilled?

It surely isn’t Pure Philanthropy — I am not employed because I feel a sense of having to better the world with my work; at least, not in a pure sense.   But even more so, I don’t ever envision myself working for a primarily-philanthropic business where the goal is to “do good things” vs. anything else.    This is because I have enough things of my own goals and volitions that I would happily accomplish if I didn’t have to earn a living.   Since I must do the latter, if it ever comes down to, “don’t work or work for a social benefit company”, I’ll probably opt for staying home and completing my own goals.

This is not to say that I’m incharitable — it’s simply to say that I don’t ever see myself being able to have the time and availability to engage in such purely unselfish activities with my time and efforts.    But, I do see myself volunteering in my free time for such things, and I think that’s where my contributions will emerge from.

On the reverse, I could never be simply money-grubbing.   There’s no soul in it, no conviction, no trust, no heart.    When your only god is the almighty dollar, your means become whatever they must to get it, no matter the associated non-monetary costs.    I won’t sacrifice my family, friends, sense of goodness, heart, mind, soul to the cause.    Those with the most toys don’t win, they just end up with a playroom full of toys and nobody to share them with.

That all being said, I don’t work for my health.  (Indeed, my health suffers rather greatly from having to work!)  I work because money, like it or not, makes the world go around, provides for almost everything in this post-industrial world, and is a necessary evil for so very many reasons.   So while I’m not a whore to the system, I am still planning on trying my best to earn as much as I can, advance my career as far as it can go, and to rise in the ranks of the business world so I can get the funding to accomplish everything I’d like to be and do.    I worry all the time that I’m not doing enough, fast enough, good enough, big enough, and the top of my career is looming ahead of me and that downhill slide to retirement is getting ever closer.   I fear it so much it makes me ache at night sometimes, simply because I know that I only get one shot at doing this the right way and I hate the idea of pulling out at 70 and saying that I had a mediocre run of it.

So, I don’t think either side of the equation is fundamentally evil — I have to be doing a job where I am earning money and being successful and I also have to be doing something that ultimately creates something of worth for the world as a whole, even if it’s a limited audience.   There are times when it’s perfectly fine to say, “Let’s to X because X will generate us a metric buttload of money.”   Likewise, I need to always be looking at the things I’m doing and say, “Is this really worth the money?   Will I hate myself in the morning/5 years/later?”

The balance must, ultimately, be struck.   Money, life, and everything in between.

Where does that line fall for you?

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2011. | Permalink | No comments....YET! Make one! | Subscribe RSS

My ‘class’ definitions:

• Poor: Can’t afford basic necessities even with careful budgeting
• Lower Class: Can afford basic necessities with strict budgeting; can afford some small luxuries (e.g. cable TV, dinner out) with long-term budgeting
• Middle Class: Can afford basic necessities without strict budgeting, chooses between the little luxuries, can afford larger expenses/luxuries (vacation, college tuition, kitchen remodel) with long-term budgeting
• Upper Class: Does not need to choose between little luxuries, can afford larger expenses/luxuries with short-term budgeting
• Rich:  Can afford larger expenses/luxuries without budgeting

The breakdown is probably one of the better ones that I’ve ever seen and it struck me in a significant way, because I can easily place myself into this chart and I suspect most people that read this blog would be able to do so as well.    I’d say for my family, we fall into the lower to middle part of Middle Class.

The question is:   Is it accurate?    For those of you who consider themselves to be “middle class”, do you fit within the above definition, or is it lacking something?    If you don’t fall within what you would consider middle class, where DO you fall and are you comfortable with that definition?

Is it even useful to define and discuss things in terms of financial classes at all?

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2011. | Permalink | 4 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

Sounds impossible, right?   I mean — playing the lottery is fun, but everyone knows the entry fee is flushed down the toilet.

Unless….

Freakonomics Radio (a podcast I highly recommend) recently ran a two-part podcast (Part 1 | Part 2) on “No-Lose Lotteries”, otherwise known as Prize-Linked Savings Accounts (PLSes).     I found the concept to be fascinating and intriguing and it left me wondering — man, how can we get it going here?

The essential idea is this: You open a savings account at a bank or credit union or somewhere.     Instead of meager interest payments which, as we all know, are next-to-nothing anyway, the interest is pooled from all other people saving into one lump sum and then, once a month, one person wins the entire pot of interest in a lottery.

If you don’t win, you have your original savings and haven’t lost a dime.   You haven’t gained anything, either, but not-losing in this economy is pretty nice.    And if you are one of the lucky ones that win, it could really change your life for awhile.    Prizes are not gigantic and depend on the number of people saving, but they range from $20,000 to $100,000.     If you’re like me, even a $10,000 windfall would make significant dents in my debt, lifestyle, etc.    $100,000 would be incredible.

PLSes have been around for years in Europe and Africa and other countries but have only recently been able to take a foothold in a few U.S. states, mostly due to the fact that the laws prevent lotteries that are not State-run from existing.    And, as you can imagine, the States are NOT fond of the idea of letting these in.

The podcasts and articles basically sum it up like this:    Americans are crap at saving.    Americans love to gamble in some form or another, mostly on lotteries.   (~$58 billion spent on lottery tickets last year)    Why not combine the two, increase our saving rate, and fulfill our need to dream a little?

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2011. | Permalink | 2 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

What a deal!

I went on a coupon shopping trip today.   I armed myself with a fistful of carefully prepared bargains, braced myself for the inevitable waves of dirty miscreants, and entered Wal-Mart with one intention in mind: Savings!

A great deal of you probably have your hands out right now, demanding that I hand my Man Card back in to be unceremoniously recycled into confetti, but hear me out!   Times have changed, technology has progressed, and this ain’t your grandmother’s coupon book anymore.

I can also hear a whole bunch of you saying, “Geez, man, where have you been?   This is old news!”   (Yes, I’m looking at you, Stacey.   Don’t piss me off, lady, I got yer number. So I’m not the first to discover this underutilized resource — shoot me — but suffer me for a moment while I expound on it, eh?

To alleviate the fears of those out there who now envision me, curls in hair, stockings over leggings, smokin’ a Marly and pushing a wobbly cart through the bra section of Wallyworld, let me paint for you the picture I’ve developed for myself on how to do this ‘coupon thing’ and still retain your masculinity in a soccer mom world –

Nathan’s No B.S. Coupon Policy

1.   Don’t screw around trying to get the damned things. — It used to be that in order to come across a plethora of good coupons and deals, the person responsible for the weekly trips to Hell would have to sit for hours at a table, armed with Fiskars, pouring over the Sunday paper and every one in between just to glean a few crappy, “30¢ off a sloppy-beef tostada” coupons before collapsing into a heap and promising to get together with neighbors the next day to swap collections.

These days, a computer, a printer, and a sense of, ‘ah ha!’ is about all you need to successfully make it in the coupon world.  Sites like The Krazy Coupon Lady, Coupons.com, Smartsource, and others make finding and printing these things a cinch. It’s so easy it’s guaranteed you’ll spend more time searching for female celebrities in thin shirts and cold weather than you will for your weekly grocery-run.    Time is money and/or sitting on your ass drinking beer and watching tube.   Keep it in perspective and exploit the tech.

2.  Not every thing that claims it’s a deal really IS a deal. — I don’t mess around with anything less than 50¢ off and it’d better be pretty specific or cheap if I go below $1.   Anything less and I’ve just burned up my time, energy, gas, toner, and sanity trying to squeeze a penny.    Using a coupon on a brand-name item to bring it down to a price that’s still above a comparable generic is also stupid — you’re NOT saving money, you’re just blowing less of it.   Repeat after me, “Most Coupons Are Not Worth It”.   The one part of this that actually does take some work involves winnowing out the chaff and picking out the really sweet, wheat deals that you can be proud of.   But that’s kinda fun.

3.  Having to buy multiples to just use a coupon is almost always a lose-lose. — Sometimes you can make this work to your advantage, but you have to do the math.   For instance, tonight I used a, “Buy 4, get 75¢ off” on some cans that were 60 cents each, so that’s a good deal, and it’s something we use all the time.   But most of the time, once you add in the amount of money you have to spend FIRST to get the item, especially if you won’t use it or won’t use it much, it’s a screw.

4.  Buying stupid, worthless crap because of a coupon is idiotic. — Occasionally I’ll buy something I wouldn’t have normally or upgrade from generic to brand name if I have a coupon, but it’s almost always a trap.   You don’t like kumquats, you wouldn’t have the first faint idea on what to DO with a kumquat, so why waste the $4 just because you have a 2-for-1 coupon?  Don’t be a moron.   Buy what you normally buy and wait for the coupons to appear for those things.

5.  Be Thee Armed and Prepared.  — When you enter the store, have your weapons (coupons) organized by section and ready to check.   Don’t screw around with walking up and down the aisles, seeing what else is on sale — remember, you’re here on a mission.   Avoid distraction.    Don’t spend too much time — if the deal isn’t apparent, move on.   If you have to do calculus to figure out your savings, ditch it.   Be cutthroat and ruthless.

6.  No matter what, coupons are still Marketing; Caveat Emptor. – Remember that stores and manufacturer’s aren’t doing this out of the goodness of their heart.    They are out to get you to buy in some form, fashion, or otherwise, so keep your thinking cap on and your gun cocked because you never know when they’ll try to get sneaky.   You can game the system to your advantage, but you have to stay alert — saving $15 on your bill when you’ve just bought $300 worth of shit means you still paid out $285 for a cartload of crap.   Don’t be a dumbass.

In conclusion, you CAN be a man and still use coupons successfully and without feeling like you’re entering into a world of Better Homes and Garbage.   While printing and cutting out coupons hasn’t made me rich, allowed me to afford a yacht, or paved the way to get laid by a girl made entirely of breasts, it has enabled me to shave off some money on regular items we get and that feels pretty damned good at the end of the register, and when was the last time a bill total made you feel good?

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2009. | Permalink | 4 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

It is, to say, nothing short of insanely boring.

Technology to the rescue, as I have found that an excellent way of spending my time is listening to various podcasts on my iPod Nano.   Not only does it distract me while I whiz along the same paths day-in, day-out, but I am learning an awful lot as a secondary consequence.    Who knew that a commute could be so educational?

Background on this Point:

One of the best podcasts I listen to is NPR‘s Planet Money, a financial-oriented show intent on demystifying the greater market news and trends and explaining what is behind the numbers in the financial sector.    The staff clearly spends an enormous amount of time researching the topics presented and deciphering them into terms that those of us, like myself, who are not bound to the financial sector can still understand what’s going on.

And there’s nothing like a financial crisis in your country to suddenly make talk of the stock markets, mortgages, and other such subjects normally considered to be fairly dry to be rendered exciting, interesting, and downright frustrating.   I have to say I have a newfound fascination with the industry that I simply wouldn’t have without PM.

Recently PM’s correspondant Adam Davidson had the chance to sit down for an interview with Tim Geithner, the Secretary of the Treasury and arguably one of the most powerful men in the American financial system today, given how much the markets are hanging on his every word and action.   In the interview, Geithner maintained a very tight to-the-message game and didn’t reveal much, but when pressed about the possibility of nationalization, came up with the response that, “that strategy” (he wouldn’t say the word) wouldn’t work for the American economy, thus indicating that it’s not an option the are considering seriously.

The Point Itself:

After listening to all the analysis of the market status, why nationalization is good or not good,  the incredible insanity of AIG, and Geither’s zig-zag interview with Adam, I wonder — maybe they don’t have a plan at all?

I mean, I know they have a plan — clearly, they haven’t been sitting there doing nothing.    But at the same time, the system is so *incredibly* complex and diverse, what’s the chance that they’re taking a road that is both politically beneficial and one that simply is stalling to let the market take hold?

There’s a good chance that given the risky investments and investments using investment money that the bigger banks are truly insolvent (worth nothing) or pretty darn close to it.  Bolstering up banks and institutions that are probably near insolvent or completely insolvent is a bad idea because it’s a horrific waste of money on something that will ultimately never pay back the value — you are essentially dumping cash down a big drain and hoping that some of it sticks and plugs the hole eventually.   But what it DOES accomplish is that it lets these failing banks and insurance companies down S-L-O-W-L-Y.    It’s one thing to pull the rug out and let everything crash to the floor, but it’s a completely different idea to let it gently roll down a ramp to the bottom.

The thought has emerged in my head that perhaps, at the end of the day, Geithner and the others have identified this as a freight train that they cannot stop quickly, but they can apply the brakes and hope that when it plows into the cars on the track it doesn’t take them out too badly.    In the meantime, the market is sorting itself out as it always does — the stocks are dropping, companies are folding, unemployment rising, prices falling — all things that would probably happen anyway if they either nationalized or completely backed away, but in this fashion, it’s allowed to die in a controlled manner, so to speak.

At some point, we’ll hit a bottom (who knows where, of course) and when that happens, the banks may or may not still exist but there’s nowhere for the market to go but up — and Geithner & Company are probably banking on the mortgages and securities coming back to at least a high percentage of the original value.

Politically, they can say that they tried, and if the plans fail, then an excuse will suffice to cover them — the bailout monies were misappropriated or the management corrupt or they underestimated the situation — any number of reasons for going tits-up.    If it works, and the system is saved from the freefall and the markets recover, they come out as the victors.    Either way, they don’t come out too badly.

Your Thoughts?

There is obviously no clear answer to the financial crisis issue and the flailings of the government and the private sector are starting to take on qualities that would be insanely amusing if they weren’t so incredibly disturbing.    But what’s the chance that the only way out of this is simply a graceful crash?

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2009. | Permalink | 12 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

Down She Goes!

Obviously there’s been a lot of talk lately about this whole economic stimulus package that is trying to be passed here in the United States, but other countries have now started to add in their own versions — the UK, Australia, Iceland (bad luck there, dudes), and others.   It’s all in the name of trying to get things back to “normal”, where that is indicated by more people making money and doing well than not.   And right now, most of us are either starting to falter, have stumbled, or are flat on our faces and sizing up where, exactly, we would put the KitchenAid in the cardboard box.

I’ve thought a lot about this entire idea of the stimulus, have listened religiously to NPR’s Planet Money podcasts concerning various opinions and analysis, and have thought about my own situation as well as that of others.    Despite recent polls indicating that support for the bill is falling amongst Americans, I still feel it’s a good idea, but the manner in how to go about it is the tricky part.

Tax relief?   Good.   Tax credits?   Not bad, but harder to see right away.   Infrastructure spending?   Great for the long term if done right, huge sinkhole of a money pit if done wrong.     The sides on that one are pretty slippery, too, I’m afraid.   Corporate tax cuts?   Uhm…didn’t we try that one already?  Yeah, it didn’t work.

I think the hardest part for everyone is quantifying what, exactly, is going to happen that will concern us, personally.   I mean…I’m big enough and smart enough to look at the whole picture.    I very well know that infrastructure spending, while a slow, long-haul poke in the ass of the economy, will ultimately make us a better country and we’ll be glad we did it in, say, 5 to 10 years.    But to be honest, RIGHT NOW, it doesn’t mean Jack M. Squat to me in terms of my day-to-day needs and necessities.

Giving me more money to take home is a great way to say, “Perk up!  Stimulate the economy!”    But that depends on how much it is.    $50 a paycheck isn’t going to go much farther than things do now, and I’m likely to look at that and think, “Well, I could…uh….buy another case of ramen??” whereas a significantly larger amount, say, $300, is another car payment, or mortgage boost, or a debt payment, or….there’s a lot more options for that kind of cash than a five-0h carries.

It also matters in terms of where I am versus where others are.     I still have a good, decent-paying job, and feel secure that I won’t be gone anytime soon (although nobody feels 100% secure and, rightly so).    There are tons of folks out there, however (and getting worse every day), that aren’t emloyed or at least not enough, and they’re looking at the stimulus package in a whole different light, more as a savior to impossible conditions rather than a boost.

I’m certainly not of the opinion that everyone should get a huge handout.   For one, in such a situation, you HAVE to have some people on the rocks, some business failing, and some jobs lost and so forth, otherwise nobody has motivation and the system becomes a welfare state and not an opportunistic one.    BUT, that all being said, it makes sense that we’d try to at least keep the majority of folks in good shape when possible.

What do I need?   Well, if I have to be completely selfish, here’s what MY stimulus would look like:

• More take-home money in the paycheck, of a significant amount.    Iowa, take back your silly agricultural taxes (god, state taxes here are stupid-high), and federal, ease up a bit.   I’m happy to pay for roads, but — honestly.
• Debt relief in the form of lower interest rates and longer pay periods.    Don’t know what government could do about that, but making things stretch out would sure be handy.   I’m happy enough to pay off my debts, but making it easier to buy groceries would be really kickass.
• Offer the option to have a forbearance on student loan payments for a year.    Look, I’m in it till 2021 right now;  I’m not in a hurry, so…can I just take a year off?   Charge me interest if you will, but let me forget about that one for a bit, hrm?   They’re so…annoying.
• Since I’m one of those who has a house that I can actually pay for and afford, make it easy to get monies or credits for improving our properties.   Not only will we get more efficiency, but we’ll see urban renewal, and that has to be a positive.

Really, in a nutshell, those are the things that will matter to me most, given my situation and place in life right now.     I’ll probably get a few of those things, but doubtful if I’ll get them all.

Now it’s YOUR turn — tell us what would stimulate you and why it would make a big difference in your life.    If we’re lucky, a Senator’s reading this right now.

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2009. | Permalink | 4 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”  – Kay, Men in Black

The biggest thing to remember in about 99.98% of cases dealing with the economy and government is that the correct road is the middle road, consisting of some sort of compromise between the extreme ideas being presented, with all the good aspects kept and the bad ones tossed out or at least muted to a dull roar. Unfortunately, nobody likes the “middle way” of things and people tend to fight for their team to WIN, WIN, WIN!, right or wrong. (After all, how many times have you seen a football game where they stop when they are all tied up, just for good will?)

This, I fear, will ultimately be the downturn of the situation(s) if it is allowed.

In times of great change, great stresses, or great tragedy, people start to think in extreme ways. Much like driving a car, the reaction to a sudden event (like a deer jumping onto the road) is often violent — but incorrectly so. A huge swerve at times like these means that you end up careening out of control into a completely different path that has far less chance of succeeding had you simply braked and hoped for the best. It’s very hard not to be immensely reactive — it goes against our basic instincts. A level head and a stout heart in times of trouble are certainly rare qualities.

Let’s take this housing crisis, the ensuing mortgage crisis, and all the financial hoo-hah it is causing as a result. There are a multitude of camps each shouting and waving fiery brands at each other in an effort to proponent particular solutions, and everyone has a clear path in their minds as to how to solve everything in one, fell swoop.   “Bail ‘em out!” they shout.   “Let ‘em fail!”  cries the crowd across the river.    “Where’s the pisser!?” cries the third section of folks who have just emerged from a TV-induced fog to find their country overridden by news headlines.

Some lawmakers know this and are striving to make it happen in a controlled manner. Others are taking a more extreme viewpoint and endangering the entire escapade. And then you have The Bushinator saying such obtuse things as, “The whole world is watching to see if we can act quickly.” No, you twit, they’re watching to see if we can handle it intelligently. Speed is worthless if you’re a raving idiot. Can you just keep your mouth shut until January, please?

If you really start to dig into the situation and read the reports, the analysis from both partial and independent folks, and start to see the bigger picture, you quickly realize that the situation is far more complex than, “Suzie charged too much to her credit card and now she’s going to have to eat ramen for a year.” Instead, we’re dealing with a beast that is alive and kicking as we are trying to tame it, and if we really look at the situation, it can never really be constrained fully anyway.

Noble Truths About the Economy and What Will or Won’t Fix It: (for your pleasure)

1. Some Need to Be Criminally Charged…But Not Everyone — The fact is, some lenders and investors were purposely misleading and did push the boundaries (or even break outright) the law. Those folks can and should be hunted down and strung up for being hazardous. But truth be told, not everyone was breaking the rules…in fact, most people were following them. They just had so much leeway or loopholes that it was easy enough to make it always work in their favor, so they figured, why not? After all, it’s all about making money. That’s not a crime — it’s capitalism.

2. Some Borrowers Were Suckered…But Not Everyone — There was a group of people out there who truly had the wool pulled over their eyes when it came to their investment decisions. The securities looked good, the house looked affordable, and the loan looked payable. But a good deal of folk were simply ignorant or stupid, or both, and they’re in trouble and that’s a shame, but….tough shit. Whoops.

3. You Have Two Choices, but the Third is Right — You can bet that the government, in an attempt to try to right this imbalance, will do one of two things: a) Bail out the lenders and punish the buyers or b) Bail out the buyers and punish the lenders. The choice they should make, and won’t because it involves a ton of work, is to punish the criminal lenders, punish the stupid and/or ignorant buyers, and give the rest a wave of the hand. This, however, requires a lot of digging and investigation and sweat and…well, you don’t see the government doing that, do you? I mean, Congress is on holiday half the year, for the love.

4. Not All Bail-outs Are Bad — I hear a lot of shouting by folks going, “HELL NO!” to the government hands that are extending to pick up the likes of Lehmann, Merrill, etc. I appreciate your enthusiasm, but you’re mostly wrong. Here’s the facts of the picture — these are huge, huge companies. Gigantic. They represent not only thousands of employees but millions of bonds, trusts, insurance policies, 401(k) accounts, etc. What if that all went *POOF!*? That is not a good thing and you’d probably have people running down the street screaming in agony.  Yes, I’d like to see some of them tank (see my next point), but they have their finger on TOO MUCH of the economy to just cut the strings. That is, unless you LIKE economic depressions? We’re not in one…yet…keep that in mind the next time you buy Ben & Jerry’s with spare cash, because you won’t have any if we get that far.

5. Some Companies Should Tank — That being said, some companies should absolutely tank out. And it should scare the begeezus out of some folks, because it’s a Very Big Dealâ„¢.   Some controlled crashes of both companies and the stock market are necessary to really get the economy out of this and people out of the mindset that, “Everything will be just fine in the morning,” because it’s not, folks. We’re screwed for a good long bit now, and it’s about time folks start taking it seriously.

6. Many, Many Investors Should Tank — You’re going to continue to see homeowners lose their houses and go into financial ruin, companies that bet too much money in mortgage securities go belly up, and businesses close their doors over this. This is all good, if you can believe it. Why? It’s because of a little something called Capitalism, which runs our economy, and states that the more risk, the more potential for more return, but the more chances of dying a screaming, horrible death. If you cancel out any one of those factors, the system breaks down. We can do a lot to prevent the economy from kicking the bucket outright, but it’s going to slump, and people are going to be in serious trouble for a long, long time. That’s unavoidable.

7. Do Not Forget that Capitalism Has No Morals — None of what has happened in this entire issue has been the “fault” of the economy. Rather, the system is running as it should — allowing people to take great risk and reap wonderful reward, then grabbing the nearest 2×4 and smacking them down to a pulp for being pompous assholes. The fact is, capitalism does not have a set of morals, feelings, ethics, or otherwise — it’s just based upon an economic “king of the hill” theory.  That’s not to say that the dollar-chasers were completely wrong — they were using the system, too. But again, with great risk comes great reward — or punishment.

And for all of you who are sitting there, going, “But….I didn’t take any risk, and someone else is fucking my economy!” I have no sympathy.   This is the system, folks — take it or leave it.   You’re a part of the system whether or not you partake in the feeding frenzy of the markets or if you lie low and hibernate.   The economy goes up or down as a whole, not just in one place or via one person.   Maybe if you had invested more, we wouldn’t be here — or maybe it would have been much worse.    Inaction, however safe it might be, is still action.

8. Rash Decisions and Regulations Do Not an Economy Make — Trying to throw laws and edicts at this problem is not going to solve it.   Flailing about in random directions, without any real directions or background intelligence, hoping that this or that will stimulate the economy back into a decent heartbeat will not help us in the long term.   We tried this idea with 9/11 and the Afghan/Iraq wars, and look where that got us. We need to prop up the economy as best we can and THEN do our research and investigations into the best long-term solutions. Right now, Congress is trying to pass a whole slew of laws that include not only provisions for now, but for long-term, and that’s wrong. They’re two different beasts, and we can take care of it better once we have time to step back and evaluate.

En Conclusio:

As you can see, all of these points take a middle-of-the-road approach to the entire problem. Why? Because that is going to be the best way to handle this in the long run to ensure the relative stability of the country and economy without fighting the system as it is supposed to operate.

Life is going to change, whether or not you like it. But we can have a role in deciding how those changes happen and how fast, and it’s important to do that correctly — for my sake, for your sake, and everyone else’s sake.    Fight for sanity, choose level-headed leaders and policymakers, and keep your wits about you — we’ll all make it together somehow.

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2008. | Permalink | One comment. One lonely comment looking for a friend. | Subscribe RSS

Of course, we couldn’t simply buy $OMG in Christmas gifts, we had to buy a new car as well. This was actually somewhat planned — well, the car at least, the new part just happened to fit with the needs. My new job at Cambrex is a 40-mile drive each way. Because of this, I’m burning a fair whack of gas. At 24mpg on the Galant, and running only premium and higher, it was costing me about $50 every 4 days to drive to work. So, I wanted something that got great gas mileage and wouldn’t cost me too much in monthly payments.

I did some pre-research so I’d at least have an idea of the scope of the arena — Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Chevrolet Malibu, and the Chevrolet Aveo were at the top of the list of gas-sippin’ vehicles. We stopped first at our favorite car dealership in Waterloo, Rydell Chevrolet, and never really got any further. They had sold me my 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse GTS back in Sept of ’03 and they managed to sell me a 2008 Chevrolet Aveo LS.

It’s actually a Daewoo Kalos that’s been re-branded by Chevrolet to sell in the United States and other locations. Manufactured in South Korea, it is designed to be comfy yet efficient, a typical sentiment of most other countries that aren’t the United States. It sports a 1.6L inline 4-cylinder engine pumping out all of 103 horsies. The engine is so CUTE! You open up the hood and can’t help but go, “Aw…look at that!” Remember, folks, 1.6L is less than a 2L of soda — it’s got itty-bitty cylinders and eensy-weensy pistons in it, but still manages to hump out some decent power.

The big seller? It is 26 city, 34 highway for gas mileage, and the salesman says typical people get 35+, which will save me a TON of money in gas. (and it runs on 87 octane!) In addition, it has a 3 year/36,000 bumper-to-bumper and a 5 year/100,000 mile drivetrain warranty so it’s almost guaranteed to be reliable for a long time, and if it isn’t, I can get it fixed easily. I did order add-on cruise control, which gets installed on Wednesday (with the commute, it made sense to get) and the undercoat/rustproofing since it’s a thin chassis and I live in Iowa where they’re using some incredible chemicals to clear roads. I really hadn’t planned on buying a new car, but it worked out to be the same price as a used vehicle with the same efficiency, so it was a no-brainer.

It’s not zippy or very fun, but it runs and isn’t awful, so it’s perfect for a commute.

Enjoy, if you will, some pictures:

Front View: How about that color!?	Rear View	Engine Compartment: A 1.6L I4 DOHC E-TEC II making 103 hp. Isn’t it CUTE?
Engine Side View: Mmm…throttle body.	Front of the Engine, Looking Down: Check out all the space available! I could fit another engine in there!	The Front Seats: Cloth covered, manual adjust. Not too shabby for comfort.
Rear Seats: Able to cart around 5 people if you don’t mind a little knee-squishing action.	Driver’s Side View: Clean, simple.	Instrument Panel: Tach, Speedometer, Temp, and Gas. The radio is AM/FM only, no CD, but it has an AUX jack for iPods and so forth, and I just bought a 2GB MP3 player, so I’ll be using that for tunes.
Trunk: Incredibly roomy considering the size of the car. I was shocked.	The 60/40 Split Rear Seat Folds Down: Both sides fold down to pass things through, which is a great thing.	View through Trunk with Rear Seats Folded: Ready for plywood, baby!

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2007. | Permalink | 8 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

No doubt a lot of you have heard about President Bush’s latest dubious action, which was to strike a deal with the mortgage market and attempt to freeze some interest rates from climbing so people didn’t have to foreclose and lose their houses. The essential idea behind it is this — during the housing bubble of the past few years, a lot of people either bought their first house or upgraded. Because interest rates were so low and lenders were giving out mortgages left and right for great terms, a lot of people bought a bigger place than they could really afford. They could do that because lenders gave out a lot of ARMs — Adjustable Rate Mortgages. It essentially means that for the few few years, your payments are low and your interest rate is, too. After that, however, the interest rate readjusts, usually higher, and your payments go up steeply.

Well, three or four years later, here we are, and a lot of homeowners are finding themselves in dire straits. Their ARMs have readjusted and, because interest rates went up, so did their payments — significantly. Suddenly that $350,000 house in Orlando is sucking up all of their income and they’re eating ramen to make it. If borrowers can’t make the payments, the lenders foreclose on the property and take it back and they lose their house as well as getting a black mark on their credit history.

So, the government is stepping up and saying, “Hey — a lot of foreclosures are bad for people and bad for the economy, so we’ll help you folks out and here’s some programs to assist you through this tough time.”

Excuse me? Since when was this a good idea?

Frankly, I’m miffed. By doing this, the government is basically condoning the actions of stupid people. Just like investing in Internet startups in the late 90s, everyone got too excited and did dumb things that they’re now regretting. Feeling a bit bad about buying a house that cost you $600/month for the first few years and now costs you double that? Want me to call the waaambulance?

As I heard one financial analyst say on the BBC, people are financially motivated in two ways — the pursuit of gaining wealth and the fear of bankruptcy. Both features exist in capitalism to balance the system out and make it dangerous to be reckless with your money. Sometimes that risk pays out — and sometimes you hit snake eyes.

I feel bad for anyone who had the wool pulled over their eyes about a bad mortgage, but only a little bit. Buying a house is not a trivial matter — you’re are making a huge purchase that will extend over years of repayment and financial situations — it behooves you to know exactly how your loan will behave at any point and what your risks are. Assuming everything will be fine because the banker says so is stupid. Failing to understand the risks you are taking is also stupid.

Call me cold-hearted, but I think this sets a bad precedent. Just like my childhood friend, this basically says that being idiotic with your money will result in the government stepping in to make sure you don’t suffer from it. If they do that now for mortgages, do we get a slippery slope to other risks in life? Oh, you made a bad choice by jumping off a roof — let us help you pay for that. You bought a huge-ass SUV and can’t afford the gas now to drive to work? Let us help you subsidize that. A bad hand at poker? You didn’t mean it, did you — here’s a Benjamin to keep going.

A bankruptcy would suck — but life isn’t all tea and sandwiches, either. Sometimes the only way people learn is by making mistakes, but apparently letting people make them isn’t ok anymore?

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2007. | Permalink | 8 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

Such began my short road into massive credit card debt. A naïve student unleashed with a seemingly endless form of money and a lack of any sort of real income was the recipe for a disaster waiting to happen.

Eventually one card led to two — after all, two is better than one, right? More charges, more shrugging at the bills — after all, I was graduating, moving to a new apartment, and had to furnish it, right? Besides, I was starting my first full-time job — the paycheck looked enormous! I could afford to spend now and pay later a bit because I was going to “catch up” real soon.

The months and years passed and “catching up” became my mantra — “I’ll just catch up next month.” The money always seemed to disappear faster than it came in and that big paycheck wasn’t nearly as big as I thought once you took out rent, insurance, food, and other necessities. Two cards turned into four, and then five, as I struggled to afford not only the cards but life in general.

Eventually I started to despair and stopped spending, but the damage was done. Monthly bills for minimum payments kept coming and I kept writing checks, furiously trying to keep the hounds at bay. “Forget” to send a payment and you got an enormous late fee and another bill — “forget” again and you started to get nasty phone calls asking when you planned to, “catch up”. I started to become fearful of the phone and avoided answering it in case it was a credit card company calling yet again to find out why I haven’t paid this month, and can we take care of that right now over the phone? We take a check, sir. Sir?

When I had finally had enough, I started to think about loans — but what bank would give me a loan to cover credit card debt? I had no house, no property, no collateral at all to speak of…even my car wasn’t paid off yet. Another job wasn’t likely, although I thought long and hard about flipping burgers for some extra cash. I was in a bad place and getting worse.

Then I found a non-profit organization that deals with helping people get out of credit card debt. There are now tens, if not hundreds of them on the TV these days, advertising everywhere, but back then, there were only a few. My friend had started with these folks and liked them. I figured I had little to lose that I hadn’t already, so I called them.

Boy, am I glad I did.

As of the 7th of December, I will be completely and utterly free of credit card debt for the first time in over 8 years. Over the course of the program, I have paid off almost $10,000 in debt with nearly $19,000 in $300 monthly payments, a far cry from the much larger amount I would have had to pay had I done it the traditional way. Instead of interest rates from 15% to 23%, the company got most of my cards down to 9.9% and made it easy for me to make one monthly payment, not five, and took care of distributing the monies to the companies. The phone calls stopped, my anxiety went away, and I’m so glad that I did this.

Just as a note before I tell you who they are — this is not a paid endorsement. They never contacted me, they never said, “Give us a jab and we’ll line your pockets.” I won’t get a red cent out of mentioning their name. I’m writing it here because I feel they’ve done a superb job for me and saved my ass when very little else could. For that they deserve my thanks and recommendation to others, that’s all. Maybe by mentioning them it’ll save someone else, too.

Take Charge America (TCA) has been a super-friendly, super-professional company to work with over the past years. The staff has always gone out of their way to be helpful, make things work, and to keep me updated on my progress. Every phone call from or to them is a great one — their people must really like to work there, because they’re all pleasant to speak to, every time. I can’t say enough about their customer service.

The program isn’t easy, so don’t think you can take the sunny road home. First Rule: No more credit cards. At all. None. You can’t use any, you can’t have any that are active, and you can’t get any while on the program. Credit card companies are happy enough to help you get into a debt management program (TCA does the negotiating for you) but if you act like you don’t care, then they will kick you out so quick it’ll make your head spin. You can’t even have one for emergencies — the only way the program works is if you stop cold turkey.

Yes, for the past 6 years I’ve not had or used a credit card, not even once. Which has proven to me that I do not need to have a credit card. I can live perfectly fine without one. Oh, sure, there were plenty of times when I wished that I did have a card, but I wasn’t able to, so I figured out how to get by without one. The program makes you be better with money and more resourceful when it comes to pinching pennies.

The second rule is that you actually have to pay them off. Sure, you don’t have to make separate payments each month to each card, but my overall payment really didn’t go down — $300/month wasn’t anything small to sneeze at. TCA gives you an amount they think your income and budget can handle and you have to stick to it. The advantage here is that instead of going to pay off mostly your interest on each card, the money starts to pay off the principle, which is the key to getting rid of it once and for all.

There were times during this stint on the program when I wished I hadn’t, when that $300 was really a major payment and I couldn’t bear to see it go to pay off debt — debt that existed for things I didn’t own anymore or benefit from any longer. Some of it was even things as stupid as groceries and beer. There is nothing worse than paying off debt that means nothing to you.

But, here I am, and I’ve come this far and I’m almost done. I couldn’t be happier. Will I get another credit card? Probably. My new job has already asked that I have one to cover business expenses and then they’ll reimburse me. I’m thinking about getting a charge card, which requires that you pay it off in full every month. Also, having one in case, say, the refrigerator breaks down, would be very handy and smart. I will not, however, get another card to cover expenses “in between” paychecks. I will not get one to buy the things I really want but can’t afford. I will not get one to compensate for a lack of preparation, planning, or control. I’m free now, and I’m not going back into that prison again.

So…if you are an American and you have a lot of credit card debt and are at the end of your rope about it, I’d highly recommend TCA. It’s not a quick or easy way out, but it’s a sure way out, and that can be the savior at the end of the road, trust me. It would have taken me over 40 years to pay off my debt by paying the minimum — now I can move on.

If you’re not in massive debt or you’re on the edge of it, DON’T fall into the trap! It was one of the worst things I’ve ever done in my life and I regret every moment of it. You do NOT need a credit card, despite what everyone (and the media) tells you! Debit cards, yes. Everyone needs some plastic, but not a credit card. They make it so easy to rack up unsecured debt that you don’t realize how hard it will be to recover from it; that’s part of the trickery. Take the advice from someone who really borked up and got out of it, thankfully, in the long run.

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2007. | Permalink | 8 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

Once again we are going through a bit of a financial crisis as our moonlighting jobs have gone the way of the infamous dodo, a poor bird that gets blamed for leading many-a thing astray, yet, when it was still in existence, was probably a really nice fowl to know and probably never even tempted a baby to sneeze let alone lead something into non-existence. But, there it is, as such — the bird gets the rap again. Yolanda’s CD burning job with DC has been farmed out to someone else, my job with BF has been terminated as the company has been sold off, and my involvement with BH, although it didn’t really garner me a paycheck, is also in the process of being truncated as the company is being relinquished to another.

The timing is, of course, like usual, fan-fucking-tastic.

Little One is due within the next 4 to 6 weeks or so and there’s plenty to do and buy for that, although we’re mostly prepared. But of course, the biggest factor is that we have debts that are constantly reoccurring and bills to pay that, frankly, we got rather used to having the extra $1000 or so a month to take care of. Now we’re back to subsisting on my previous income level.

And the holidays! Oh, those glorious holidays that beset us on all sides with the feelings of inadequacy and the outpouring of hundreds of dollars because we’re nice, goddamit, and we refuse to be snotty and tight.

It’s at this point that I got musing today that, while people always say, “Gosh, I’d be great to win the lottery and get $150 or $200 million or heck…even FIVE million…what I would do with a million dollars, period!”, at this point in my life, I really can’t be that greedy. Sure, that’d be nice, but in reality, all I need right now is about 10 grand. That’s it. I really think that’s about all I need for now.

It’s all a matter of getting back on your feet, right? It’s not as if I have a terribly awful job, but it’s the little things that kill off the wages. Ten thousand smackaroons would enable me to erase my credit card debt that’s been plaguing me for 6 years (long after I cut up my cards), clear off all of our medical bills and pay for the kiddo’s birth, and get us caught up on normal bills. Then, with the extra money diverted from my credit cards and no extras to pay, we’d be set to go.

It seems like such a small amount of money, really. $10K is about half the price of a typical car. I could buy about 5 Macs for that. To a Fortune 500 business, it’s a drop in the bucket. I pay that much money in health insurance in 20 months. And yet, it might as well be a trillion for all that I cannot get it.

Sometimes I think about winning (or earning) gargantuan amounts of money, and I wonder…what would I do with it? Among many other things, I often think about if I would be a “random kindness” person. Would I wander around with $100 bills in my pocket, slipping them to others discretely? I’d have half a mind to get a phone book from some really, really random place, pick out 100 people, and send them each a money order for $1,000. In it, I would anonymously include a note that says, “Here’s some random kindness — use it if you need it, pass it on if you don’t,” and just see what happens. You never know what good might come of it.

Meanwhile, back in Reality, I’m working on some things to try to get us in a better place, but who knows if and when they’ll all pan out, but I’m hoping some will. Sometimes I feel like we’re always taking a step forward and several in reverse and we’ll never get dug out of these holes, but on the other hand, it can’t stay this way forever, can it?

My life is rich in many, many ways, and I don’t for one second disregard them. It’s just the unfortunate movements of small, green pieces of paper that really get me in a bind from time to time, because Real Life(tm) demands them. Money doesn’t grow on trees, I know, but can someone point me in the direction of a coin bush?

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2007. | Permalink | 2 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

So, on Tuesday after our lovely biometrics appointment with the USCIS (formerly the INS), we headed to the “Auto Mile” in Des Moines to see what was available. We first checked out the Mazda dealership, because I had looked at Mazda 3s and 6s online and rather liked how they looked. The problem, we discovered, is that Mazdas are a Japanese-designed/built car and are sized for the Japanese people, who are shorter of stature. I felt very much like I had been shoved into a too-small shoe.

We had noticed the Mitsubishi dealership on our way, so we decided to stop there and take a look at what they had. My wife was immediately impressed with a black and very tricked-out Outlander (their mid-range SUV), so we took a gander at that first. We test-drove it but there was something very, very wrong with the accelerator where it would delay greatly before actually applying power, which was a no-no for safety reasons. We then toyed around in an Endeavor, Mitsu’s full-size SUV, of which they had a nice used model. It was a lot better to drive and handled nicely, but I’ve never been terribly fond of SUVs for safety reasons and so forth, so I wasn’t very impressed.

Lastly, we started looking at the Galants and happened across this ’07 Ralliart edition with only 5k miles on it, all put on by their service manager. We took that for a spin and both of us really loved it, so it was a matter of debating amongst ourselves and then having the guy run the numbers for us while we took the car to do some shopping and chat. The numbers turned out in a very favorable way (our payment actually went down by $12/month) and insurance was $1 more a month, so we said to go for it. We couldn’t wait to take it that day as we were in a rush, so we went down on Friday, signed our life and old car away, and brought her home.

Out With the Old

I wasn’t very happy about getting rid of the Eclipse — she was my first new car and what a great car to own — almost perfect in every way. Fun, fast, powerful, cornered like it was on rails, and a stick shift, something I’ve longed after for years. However, I know that this was the right decision at this time, as I’d soon be cursing the Eclipse’s lack of ease of use with our child. Also, my wife isn’t very handy with driving a stick and driving in city traffic, nor did she fit very well in the Eclipse with her short legs, so this is a better fit for all three of us.

I do hope the Eclipse goes to a good owner, as she’s a good vehicle and I wish her well; she certainly was a faithful machine for me for years. We were both pretty sentimental about giving her up, but there was no way to afford both.

In With the New

Here are some pictures of the new Galant Ralliart. The Ralliart trim of this car is their top-of-the-line trim, incorporating a bigger engine, better suspension, nicer rims and tires, and better interior features, both cosmetic and functional. Ralliart is the rally racing division of Mitsubishi and so the style harkens back to the days when Mitsu actually did a lot of rally racing. In short, it’s a sport version of a family car, which fulfills both the “fatherly” and “who’s your daddy” side of my psyche.

Front, Side, and Rear Exterior Views:

Front and Rear Seating Views:

Driver’s Side Viewpoint, Instrument Panel Gauges, Console Cluster, and Shifter:

A view of the 3.8L, 258hp V6 engine and compartment, a side view of the same, and a closeup on the intake of the engine, which is horrifically complex and which I hope to replace in the nearer future with something much more conducive to air flow and sound instead of this convoluted mess:

The Details (for those of you who want all the nitty-gritty):

• 6G75 Engine, 3.8L Single Overhead Cam V6 with 24-valve Multiport Fuel Injection and MIVEC Variable Timing, 10.5:1 compression ratio, pumping out a maximum of 258 HP @ 5750rpm and 258 lb/ft torque @ 4500 rpm; cast iron block, aluminum heads
• Sportronicâ„¢ 5-speed Automatic Transmission with Overdrive
• Exterior: Ultra Red Pearl
• Interior: Black Cloth & Leather
• Dual-Stage Front Air Bags, Seat-mounted Side Air Bags, and Front & Rear Curtain Air Bags
• Daytime Running Lamps
• Engine Immobilizer
• Tire Pressure Monitoring System
• Front slotted (11.7″) and Rear solid (11.4″) disc brakes with 4-sensor/4-channel ABS and Electronic Braking Distribution
• Traction control
• 22mm Front strut tower bar; 21mm rear stabilizer bar
• Sport-tuned suspension; Independent MacPherson Struts in front, Low-mount multi-link in rear
• Front & Rear Stabilizer Bars
• Automatic climate control
• Cruise Control
• 360W Rockford Fosgate Acoustic Soundsystem with 8 speakers, 6-disc in-dash CD/MP3 Player, and Sirius Satellite Radio enabled with 6-month service
• Sport-wrapped steering wheel with audio controls
• Power windows with 30-second reserve
• Color LCD Center Audio, Compass, Temperature, Time, Calendar, Fuel Economy Display
• 8-way power driver’s seat with lumbar
• Aluminum brake and gas pedals
• Heated front seats and side mirrors
• Power sunroof
• Rear spoiler with LED brakelight
• 235/45 R18 94V all-season tires on 18″ 8JJ 7-spoke alloy wheels
• 18 city and 27 highway gas mileage
• 10-year, 100,000 mile Powertrain Warranty
• 5-year, 60,000 mile New Vehicle Limited Warranty
• 3-year, 36,000 mile Bumper-to-Bumper Warranty
• 5-year, Unlimited mile Roadside Assistance
• A link to the YouTube video of the 2006 unveiling of the 2007 model.

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2007. | Permalink | 3 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

Of late I have been amusing myself by participating in the Where’s George? Project, which seeks to allow users of the website to track paper US currency as it travels around the country. Most users who regularly enter bills have a stamp to mark each bill that they register with the site, but some write various things on the bill as well. A person who finds one of these bills can come to the website, enter the serial number and the series and see where the bill has been, as well as being the next “link” in the chain of record.

I started this years ago when I was still a college student at Luther and got a few bills registered and a few hits as well, but then I gave it up for the longest time. Only recently did I think to check into the site, see that it is still running, and decide to get going on it again.

This time I bought a stamp from a 3rd party so I could easily make my bills visible to the potential recipient. It states, “See where I’ve been, Track where I go next! www.wheresgeorge.com” Lately, any green that comes past my wallet has been blessed with a registration and a stamp before it gets spent in my daily travels.

And, so far, I have yet to get a single hit on a bill.

For my total WG career, I’ve entered 131 bills worth $422. Of these, 3 have gotten a hit, for a whopping 2.29% hit rate. Now, I’m a bit confused about this, because I thought I would have better luck with this these days vs. back in 1999/2000 when I started this. Almost everyone has the Internet nowadays, don’t they? And would you imagine that, in general, if you saw a bright red stamp that said the words above you’d probably haul it to your computer and give it a whirl?

So why am I not getting any hits?

Very confusing. Perhaps none of the bills are leaving my hometown, where the population is probably less computer savvy than others, and therefore the bill isn’t getting enough exposure. Or perhaps, given that I just re-started this again recently, I haven’t given them enough time to really propagate out in the “wild”.

So, if you find a bill and it has a stamp on it, head on over to WheresGeorge.com and register the darn thing. It’ll take you all of 5 seconds — it’s that easy — and you’ll really make someone’s day on the other end of the string. And for you Canadians, they even have WheresWilly.com! (Sorry, Aussies, I don’t think anyone has started a, “WheresTheOddlyColouredMoney.com” for you folk.)

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2007. | Permalink | 2 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

Today I pulled out of going to the contest entirely, an event that further cements my feeling that most of life sucks.

The reasons are numerous.   A large part is available finances (or lack thereof).    A part is the enormous responsibilities currently sitting on my shoulders trying to manage all of my jobs.   And a part is that I have lost the "spark" for the hobby almost entirely.

I think the constant stress in my life trying to juggle all this shit is destroying my ability to relax enough to enjoy something like barbershop singing or any other sort of enjoyment or relaxation.   I’m so wired and wound and ripped up all the time that letting go of that is becoming near on impossible.   Going to rehearsals every Monday night have become only one more thing to fit into my life.    Going to the contest would involve leaving on the last possible flight to get there, stressing the entire time about money and my responsibilities back home, and then catching the first possible flight back as well.    In short, I wouldn’t enjoy hardly a second of the entire experience.

So that, coupled with the fact that we really could use the money somewhere else, caused me to write an email tonight and pull out.    I absolutely hated doing it, but I essentially had no choice.    This has been ripping me up for days; I’ve been stressed about it, thinking about my options, weighing things, re-weighing them, jugggling options in my mind — one does not throw away a one-time experience easily.

In the end, I had to practically force myself to write the email to terminate my involvement, but it was necessary or I was going to start puking blood or something.

It sucks.   It royally, royally sucks.   I hate these moments when life backs you into a corner and doesn’t give you a reasonable, logical way out.   Sure, I could have gone and thrown responsibility to the wind, but one doesn’t do that when you’re adult and thinking and rational.   One does that when you’re 15 and are invincible or 18 and cocky.    A man of 29 is expected to suck it up and deal with it properly, which is what I did, no matter how much I’ll hate myself for it later.

And now…back to the grindstone of life, to be crushed or rubbed or burred into whatever shape fate has for me and my soul.

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2007. | Permalink | 2 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

A bit of a rundown of various random things on my mind and that for which I have photographic evidence:

My Cat is on Grass

Many moons ago when my mother-in-law was over here visiting from Australia, she bought my cat, Leo, a “cat grass” kit from Wal*Mart. Now, I’ve never seen anything like this before, but it’s a self-contained kit to grow…waaaaaaait for it…GRASS. Yeah, I know. But apparently it’s supposed to be “cat friendly” grass that they’ll want and desire to eat.

And what’s funnier is that he actually does like to eat it — so much that he horked it all over the kitchen floor the other day and then looked up at me as if to say, “Well, it was nice, but the bleu cheese dressing was a bit tangy.”

I trimmed it tonight, thinking that perhaps it had grown a bit hairy, and since we put it up on the cupboard to keep Leo from snarfing it down like a vegan bulemic it has grown considerably. This very well may kill it off, as it appears to be some form of oats or similar — probably something exotic like, “mouse weed”, or similar, that has a flavor like a speeding rodent.

BANG! Thump, thump, thump is not a normal sound effect

The thing that never ceases to amaze me is that once you have a bit of money in your possession, something happens to sap it out of your wallet just as fast as it came to exist there. Really, my bank is just a pass-through for funds, not a stopping grounds, as nothing ever sits there long enough to even cool off.

Saturday as we sped up I-35 to the wedding reception of my cousin, I went to pass a guy in the left-hand lane and loud racket erupted from the rear of my car. Originally, my mind went, “You cut off a biker, you idiot.” and then proceeded towards, “No, you blew out a muffler. Nice.” The reality eventually crept into my head — “It’s a tire, it has to be a tire. Dammit.”

I pulled over to the side of the road and sure enough, the rear driver’s side tire was completely deflated and sitting on the rim. Shit. We tried calling my father, thinking that he might be behind us, but he had turned his cellphone off for the wedding. I tried to find my roadside assistance number, but even though I pay $7/month for the damned thing, I don’t appear to have the number actually on me. It dawned to me that I should probably just bite the bullet and change the tire myself, which I did in about 8 minutes, no problems, and put on the “donut” spare, then proceeded to drive 50mph for the rest of the night (its rated speed limit).

This is on my 2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse, which hasn’t even turned over 50,000 miles yet — clearly a lot of tread and wear was killed off in its early life.   The tires are P215/50R17 90Vs and the current ones are Eagle RS-As,which have been great for me when driving, but…

The pictures are not doubles, nor are they pictures of the same damage — the tire blew out in two places, or at least one place and the other ripped once I started driving on it, unknown about that. So I have been searching and I believe I get to drop $260+ on two new tires come Monday. Yay. ~

Toilet Herbs

Everyone has heard of an herb garden full of pot — but this is a pot full of an herb garden. Perhaps you remember my posting about our old house being destroyed. Well, before it was flattened I went through and stripped tons of useful items from it. One of the very last things I grabbed was our old toilet.

Now, I hear you saying to your computer screen (as your spouse wonders how long you’ve been crazy, and why you don’t take your meds), “Nathan, what in fuck do you want a toilet for???”

Well, I thought since it had been through so much shit with us, it deserved to come along and keep sharing the experience. However, I knew that it was time for a career change for the water closet, and so I have turned it into my herb garden by filling the bowl with dirt and planting some sweet basil and Italian oregano in there.

Think of the advantage — it’s self-watering! You just flush it and voila! Instant wet dirt. Too much water? No problem, it’ll just flow out the trap. I’m planning on eventually redirecting the output of the downspout into it to provide plenty of good rainwater reserve for those dry days of summer.

Think of the humor! You’re cooking for friends and need some spices and so you just say, “I’ll go to the toilet and get some oregano!” The look on their faces will be precious, really. Plus, it should be a great conversation piece once it gets going.

Never say that something can’t be recycled — even if it’s in “crappy” condition!

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2007. | Permalink | 2 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

For the lazy, the article is best summarized as a look into the oddities of the corporate health plan of Scott’s Miracle-Gro Company in Marysville, OH. This company has completely changed the normal paradigm of a corporate health plan being just another benefit provided by the business to its employees and has instead taken and active and proactive approach to their employees’ health, up to and including termination.

In other words, they are very passionate (like Hannibal Lector passionate) about keeping their employees healthy, and if the worker doesn’t comply with their urgings and recommendations — well, don’t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. They are tobacco-free and count it as one of the ‘drugs’ on their required drug tests; fail and you are fired.

Not that they haven’t helped the employees out a ton; far from it. They have installed a $5 million exercise center that has almost every sort of equipment and facility known to man to work on your body, offers free prescription drugs, has on-site doctors, counselors, etc. and offers personal coaches for a low fee. Employees either take a health assessment or pay $40/month extra in premiums — $107/month more if they don’t follow the health coach’s recommendation based on that assessment.

It raises a lot of questions, not only about legal aspects but about ethical ones. How much can employers intrude into the lives of their employees? Obviously, they have some stake in what happens because if they are covering the health premium, they have a vested interest in the subject — money. But Scott’s has taken it even farther, essentially saying, “If you’re unhealthy, we don’t want you working here.”

“Five years ago, if you had told me, Hey, you better quit smoking or you might not get a job,’ I would have laughed. Here I am five years later, and I can’t get a job.”

I don’t think there is any doubt by anyone as to whether or not people are getting fatter and more unhealthy; I certainly struggle with it all the time, and the fact is, the amount of pre-processed, pre-cooked, pre-assembled food products available today isn’t helping. My schedule often pushes towards these sorts of meals, too, as it’s very hectic and I have little time to spend several hours cooking, eating, and cleaning up — many days, it’s hard enough to get something microwaved in time, let alone anything else.

My job doesn’t exactly encourage exercise, either — I’m sitting on my butt for 9 hours a day, plus X number of hours at night while I do my evening jobs, totaling somewhere between 12 and 15 hours of sitting per day. More than once have I dreamed about having a mini treadmill under my desk or something.

I won’t go into much detail about the health program at my dayjob, but suffice to say that they’ve made great efforts this year to promote good health and encourage people to move around more than they tend to. It’s still very hard to incorporate into my schedule, but I’ve attempted to take part in some of it. Of late I’ve been bad and have resorted to driving to work and generally not paying attention to what I’m shoving in my gob, something I really must stop doing. After all, this is summer — what a better time to get fit than now?

However, the situation at Scott’s is obviously one of the extreme and perhaps concern. How far can the health “recommendations” and evaluations go? What if they find a mentally unstable person — can you require counseling? Schedule antidepressants for the perpetually down? How about bad or troubled marriages, could a company evaluate something like this and strictly advise a revision of your sexual life? Wrong religion — here’s a new Bible and a corporate preacher to help you through it?

Obviously, I’m sliding down a pretty slick slope here and the quagmire goes pretty deep from there, so let’s not get tangled too deeply in the “what ifs”; however, one has to start considering where, if anywhere, the lines exist to control this sort of thing, and if these sorts of regulations and controls are allowed for health care, how much farther could they go with other things they have invested interest in?

Say for instance my vacation time. Since my corporation provides it as a benefit to me, they clearly want me to benefit from it. Much of what I benefit from it is the simple notion of not being at work 24/7/365 — it’s a morale issue. But what if the company wanted to make sure I was getting a “good” vacation? If I chose to sit at home for a week on the couch, eating Cheetos, drinking Mt. Dew, staying up all hours, and watching The Best of Debbie Does, do they have a right to dictate otherwise?

Clearly it is not and will not be a cut-and-dried issue for a long time, and you can bet that the bad health trend, if it continues, will only make companies consider the above sort of strictness or give up the providing of health benefits at all, which leads to all sorts of other issues. You will see employees subscribe to these tenants as they appear and/or protest and fall away, and don’t even get me started on the unions — I can’t imagine the wrenches that throws into the works.

So, until then — if you have health goals, keep working on them, and I’ll try to get off my lazy ass and work on mine, because you never know — it just might help you retain your job someday.

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2007. | Permalink | 2 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

We picked him up today from the vet and found out that the bill was an outrageous $283.00, a sum I am neither prepared for nor was expecting. I was thinking $120, maybe $150. I don’t know where that’s coming from — we’re blown out from my talker’s GTG last weekend and other associated expenses; there’s quite a few bills that were waiting on my check from to get here (which it hasn’t yet….grrr…) but now that’ll be completely soaked by this fucking vet bill. We WILL NOT be going back to this guy again, he gave the cat far more than he needed to recover from his ordeal. While being a more personable vet in general, he was not worth that much money.

So now we’re not only screwed, we’re REALLY screwed. All money that would be normally saved up is going to bills and even then we’ll be short.

I’m finding it very hard to figure out why, when I’m making more money than I ever have, and MOST of it is extra, we’re sinking farther and farther into the hole? HOW IS THIS HAPPENING????

Honest to fuck, I need a break. Somebody give me a fucking chance to not have to worry every single day about money, please?

Just when I want to crawl into a hole or spend the entire night on the couch is when I need to buckle down even harder because otherwise it’ll only get worse. I hate this shit.

Kids: Enjoy your time before 18. Adulthood sucks ass.

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2006. | Permalink | 3 little comments jumping on the bed. | Subscribe RSS

Well, we were with Sprint. Now, I’ve had Sprint since I moved to Sheffield and have loved them, they’ve been very good to me. Reliable, decent rates, etc. However, now that I use VoIP for a lot of our calling and so forth, our monthly costs have gone down. Now the $12 that we pay to Sprint just to stay with them is prohibitively expensive. That’s just for fees, no calling.

So, I found 3U. Here’s the features:

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2006. | Permalink | No comments....YET! Make one! | Subscribe RSS

My wife and I are attempting the purchase of our first piece of property — a house, much needed due to our current residence all but practically falling down around us and our landlord’s reluctance to fix it. Not that I can blame her, the house is a piece of shit and has severe structural issues that would make any attempt at repair cost far above and beyond the value of the house that it would be applied to.

This is coupled with the fact that, because of our individual hobbies of stamping and crafts for my wife and vintage computer collecting and repair for me, we have far outgrown our current living space and feel rather cramped. The house, in general, would be fine for two people who just didn’t have this much shit, but that’s how it is.

So, we’ve looked for a place for some time now. We’ve looked starting here in our current town of Sheffield and in neighboring Hampton for a place that might suit our needs. We’ve looked at pristine conditions and fixer-uppers, one levels and multi-levels, houses styled in the 1970′s and ones styled modern. The sheer differences between houses can sometimes make one stagger in disbelief and yet, we found a pattern to looking at houses. Landa would look at it for its beauty, functionality, and comfort levels, and I would look at it for structural reasons — walls, frame, wiring, heating, pipes. We got a good system going where we could pretty much enter a house and have it picked apart in a half hour or so.

So finally one day this house comes up on a listing here in Sheffield and we schedule a peep. The first showing was by a realtor we really didn’t like, so although we liked the house, we decided not to use the realtor again. So, we called another realtor of ours from Staley Real Estate in Hampton, Kurt, and asked him to show us the house. Thankfully, he did. Kurt had been the one realtor that was constantly on the lookout for houses for us and paid attention to what we liked.

We looked at it again and liked it much better the second time around, so we decided to bid on it and take the leap, pending finding financing for it. A counter offer and we accepted. Then the fun…or not fun…began.

Whoever thinks that buying a house is fun is on seriously pure crack. Somedays, I’d rather have my fingernails removed with a spoon.

We went to the bank in Hampton to talk to a loan officer about getting financing and he decided to try us as a perfect candidate (so he said) with a relationship they are exploring with Sands Mortgage, a mortgage broker. So we submitted a financing application and waited to be approved.

That came back with 2 offers of financing, both which were pretty decent — 90% or 100% financing. Good deal. We hadn’t really planned for very long on buying a house so we didn’t have anything really saved up except enough to cover closing costs, so a 100% financing deal sounded pretty good to us and we signed off on that one and got the ball rolling.

Over the next few days, I got Kent paystubs and W-2 forms and photo ID and slivers of DNA and I don’t know what else, but enough to prove that I was real and had a job and didn’t live in a cardboard box.

And so closing was set for April 10th.

And we waited.

And got a call probably around the 3rd. The closing date would need to be changed, Kurt said, because the sellers couldn’t get into their new house and wanted to get it carpeted and painted before having to move in. Fair enough, we could understand, so we were told it’d be sometime around the 14th.

A callback a day or so later and now it had moved to the 15th because the mortgage company wouldn’t be ready till then.

A few more days, and another setback. The mortgage company didn’t have the paperwork done, some sort of miscommunication with various things and the bank and…well, I really don’t know. But Kurt seemed ok with it so we were, too. The closing was rescheduled for the 21st to make sure we could have it done on that day and wouldn’t have to change the date again.

So, here comes the morning of the 21st. I went to work for the morning and came home at noon to get a call from Kent. “Sands seems to think it won’t happen today.” What? Why not? “They have some things they need yet.” He suggested I call Sands and talk to them about it. I suggested that my realtor was the more likely choice to call, and did so.

Kurt’s expression over the phone was appropriate, at least. “WHAT!?!” He had me hang up and called me back after making a few phone calls to appropriate sources. Seems Sands lender had come up with some stipulations that had to be met yet. Kurt and I decided together to meet in at the bank at 2pm to sort what the hell was going on, as by this time, we’re both confused and pissed.

We get in there and it turns out they need an amended purchase agreement and my last Simple IRA statement. Well, ok, not a problem…but why now? Why not earlier? This should have been done AGES ago!

No clue. No damn clue anywhere. Call Sands and our account has been passed from a guy named Jordan to a girl named Janell. Jordan had assured Kurt on Friday that everything was kosher and we were set to close on Monday, no stips, no problems. Then suddenly not only do they have stips, the papework is incomplete???

And on top of that, we find that the closing will not be until Friday of this week (25th) or possibly until Monday (28th). By this point the sellers are into their new house and all they have from us is our earnet deposit ($300) — we HAVE to imagine they are getting pissed. Besides that, we had planned to get into the house by Tuesday morning, buy paint, and get moving on things. While we’re not rushed to get out (May 1st is our deadline so far), we want to move on things so we won’t be doing them for ages to come.

So, we ask what to do. The decision is made to go to Abbott’s Realty, the seller’s realtor, and talk with them about possibly offering a larger earnet deposit in exchange for being allowed to take posession and start doing some work. The woman there, Kathy, is a great girl and has worked with us before. Her statement about the whole situation? “Bullshit.” Yup. You said it. She said she’d talk to the sellers as they were likely to be very understanding as they had gone through the same thing just the week before.

So Kurt calls later that afternoon while I have gone back to work and lets us know that the sellers were fine with us going in as long as we signed a form saying we absolved them of liability in case of accident. No problem there. He said he’d be by at 9:30am. After this call I get an email from the director of operations saying she had received a call from Sands about my employment status. Well, that’s nice, but again…isn’t this something that should have happened ages ago? I fax in the copy of my IRA statements.

Kurt shows up around 9:45ish or so and has us sign off and we get a ring with three keys on it. Cool. So, we head off with our friend Brenda who has come from Virginia to see us to take a look around and get things started.

Get a look around in the house, turn up the heat, and head to town to get supplies. $145 later and we have 4 gallons of paint, brushes, rollers, pans, and plastic to get going on redecorating in our own image.

By this time, it was time for me to head back to work (having only taken a morning off) and I went. Got a call during the afternoon from Sands, however, now asking about my credit card management program.

About a year ago I decided that my credit cards had screwed me in the ass long enough and it was high time to take care of them permanently, so I contacted Take Charge America, a non-profit credit counseling organization, who then set me up with an account and did all the negotiating with my credit card companies to get me nice, low rates, bring my accounts current, and set up a repayment plan. The people there are SUPER nice, extremely helpful, and always out for your better good instead of just theirs. Wonderful experience with them so far. I make a monthly payment to them which includes a small fee for their services and the money is divided up by them to the various cards and paid on time. Great system, works wonders, and is helping me get rid of my unsecured debt quickly.

So, you’d think they’d see this and go, “Oh, good, he’s taking care of his unsecured debt in a responsible manner. Made some mistakes but figuring it out. Good deal.” Unfortunately, that’s not how they look at it; they see it as a failure of the person, credit-wise.

So, I got Janell the contact information for TCA and had her call them to find out the details of my program and try to give the lender information about my participation that would make them happy.

And that’s where we sit. I haven’t heard back from Janell yet, although she’s an extremely nice and friendly person, so I’m hoping for something good. But I don’t know. I know that lenders can be really touchy about such things and that’s why I originally applied for this financing and made the purchase agreement with the stipulation of getting financing; I wanted to make sure this would all fly through before committing.

However, that’s not how it worked and now I’m stuck in a very rock hard place. I can’t back out of the deal because if I did, the sellers could demand and sue for full payment and would, in all liklihood, win. Then I’d have a bill w/o a house. If I can’t get financing at these rates, I may have to bend over and take it up the tailpipe with a higher rate, higher payment, and overall headache by financing somewhere else or through the bank itself, if they’ll even do anything.

And so my stomach is in knots and has been all day and will likely be like that until I hear better news about the financing. It’s like a constant cramp and it hurts and I’m agitated and upset. I’ve been going through Tums like candy and I’m cranky as all hell. There is a LOT riding on this, especially concerning my financial future.

And it’s not like we were just flushed with money to start with in this project, otherwise I would have simply taken a traditional bank loan, put 20% down, and walked out with a few pieces of paper and a new house. But I’m a first-time home buyer with moderate credit and little cash and I’m getting screwed in every known position in the universe. If it gets screwed up, I end up sued and penniless and facing huge payments and fines. Even if it resolves itself, I am still going to have to struggle with a mortgage payment, insurance, utilities, repairs, etc.

I am an adult and I live in the adult world, working an adult job and accepting adult responsibilities, but can’t a guy get a break once in a while? Lately every door is closed, every window has bars, every path has weeds. Nothing is won easily, we cannot get anything for ourselves without bending over backwards until bones crack, muscles shred, and spinal cords are turned into quivering goo. I swear whatever I signed up for as a kid, I didn’t sign up for this.

Buying a house SUCKS. I highly recommend against it if you can manage. If you have to, make sure you have the entire amount in cash, walk up, and pay for it in FUCKING QUARTERS.

UPDATE: Finally after much runaround, we closed on the property on April 25th, 15 days after the original closing date. Everything went very smooth at the end, surprisingly, and closing costs were less than I had anticipated, so…we ended up good in the end. The process still sucks, though.

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2005. | Permalink | No comments....YET! Make one! | Subscribe RSS

Many people think that money causes problems but keep in mind that you can get college grants for free from the government. There are many ways to get free college grants so look online for more information on how you can get college grants.

However, I’m a bit short on a downpayment (Read: no money) and I don’t know how that’ll work, if at all. So I’m screwed, probably…a great opportunity and nowhere to go because I can’t hack it financially. I earn a good wage and everything is just sapped. It’s very, very depressing. I need to find a good plan for getting out of debt and staying there (and eBay, while nice for extra cash, doesn’t seem to be the long-term solution for the problem…:)

© Nathan Pralle for PhilosYphia, 2004. | Permalink | No comments....YET! Make one! | Subscribe RSS